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At the Misfits Boxing 20 press conference, all the stars from Saturday’s event will answer questions from the media.

The Misfits Boxing 20 press conference will begin at 12 p.m. ET.

Three names are confirmed for the new era of the Professional Fighters League in 2025.

PFL has abandoned its season format for more traditional tournaments in 2025, similar to the early Bellator style of events, and the first fighters confirmed in the grand prix are Impa Kasanganay, Taila Santos, and Marc Diakiese.

The promotion will still announce the other 59 fighters to the roster, and is expected to reveal the full brackets in February. The eight tournament winners will pocket $500,000 each.

Kasanganay (18-5) won the 2023 light heavyweight season after a 5-0 run under the PFL banner that year. Kasanganay made his way to another season final in 2024, but lost to Dovletdzhan Yagshimuradov.

Santos (22-4) also made it to the PFL finals in her first year since leaving the UFC, but came up short against Dakota Ditcheva for the million-dollar check in November 2024. Santos, who once challenged Valentina Shevchenko for UFC gold, is 3-1 in PFL.

Diakiese (18-7) parted ways with the UFC after competing 15 times inside the octagon between 2016 and 2023, walking away after completing his deal with a win over Kaue Fernandes in Brazil and heaving beat the likes of Joe Duffy and Lando Vannata in the company. The 31-year-old veteran won a decision over Tim Wilde in his Bellator debut this past September.

PFL will hold tournaments in every male division from bantamweight to heavyweight, plus women’s flyweight division.

PFL founder and chairman Donn Davis returns for a special town hall with the MMA Fighting community.

Heading into 2025 for the promotion, Davis joins MMA Fighting’s Mike Heck to make some announcements for the year, and answers questions live from the viewers about anything and everything — from a potential format change, what’s going on with Bellator, Francis Ngannou’s year, and much more.

Join the show live Thursday at 1 p.m. ET / 10 a.m. PT. You can begin submitting your questions in the video link above.

Umar Nurmagomedov doesn’t have a reputation as a prolific trash talker but he finds it rather funny that Merab Dvalishvili has been so offended by whatever he’s said ahead of their fight at UFC 311.

Long before the matchup was made official, Dvalisvhili screamed to the heavens that Nurmagomedov was disrespecting him and didn’t deserve the opportunity to compete for the UFC bantamweight title after just six fights in the promotion. Dvalishvili also got rather upset by a backstage interaction during a UFC 311 press conference this past December where he claims he confronted the Russian fighter over his perceived disrespect and Nurmagomedov told him he said what he said “because I wanted to [and] what are you going to do about it?”

Nurmagomedov didn’t deny the interaction but he also added that Dvalishvili’s anger towards him was really misguided, especially given the circumstances surrounding how their fight came together.

“Of course, I remember that moment,” Nurmagomedov said during UFC 311 media day. “When he asked to me, I saw him, I smiled at him and go to do an interview. He come to ask me ‘why you disrespect me?’ OK, he has a question why you disrespect me? I want to tell him what are you talking about? Exactly what did I say? You’re too sensitive. Explain to me. He’s talking about ‘why are you disrespecting me? Why are you disrespecting me?’ I’m not his son. He can’t ask me like father and son ‘why do you do this?’ He’s not my father. Of course, I want to tell him because what can you do?

“If you guys can find anything where I said with his name Merab — Merab is a coward, Merab is a bullshit guy or anything else — show me.”

If anything, Nurmagomedov believes he had the right to be upset towards Dvalishvili after the reigning UFC bantamweight champion continuously discounted him as a rightful contender for the belt.

Dvalishvili went to great lengths to discredit Nurmagomedov’s claim to a title shot while touting former champions like Petr Yan and Sean O’Malley as more worthy challengers.

“He does some video where he’s a teacher and he shows why Petr Yan deserves [the title shot] more than me, of course I will tell him Merab, don’t be scared,” Nurmagomedov said. “Nobody understood why you’re trying to avoid [me].

“Dana [White] said I’m next. Joe Rogan after his fight asked to him ‘what about Umar? He’s the next challenger.’ Everywhere he tried to avoid, right? But it’s not like me what I said. All words, all fans said ‘Merab’s trying to avoid this fight, he’s looking bad’ and what else I have to do?”

Nurmagomedov says ultimately Dvalishvili didn’t do himself any favors by pushing for all these other fights when the UFC made it clear who he would be facing in his first title defense.

That’s really what came back to bite him and Nurmagomedov believes Dvalishvili has no one to blame but himself for how he’s being perceived.

“Of course he’s nervous,” Nurmagomedov said. “Maybe he’s upset with the UFC. They pushed him to fight with me. Even before when he was not champion, he don’t take this fight. He doesn’t want to fight with me. When he became champion, I think he tried to fight with other ones because other guys are going to be an easy fight for him.

“He can’t tell anything to UFC, to Dana [White], like he can’t show them. He’s always talking like he’s a company guy but they pushed me to fight with me.”

When it comes to his championship credentials, Nurmagomedov doesn’t know why Dvalishvili is getting so bent out of shape.

Nurmagomedov knows there’s no straight line to a title shot because some fighters get that opportunity quicker than others and he’s only taking the opportunities being afforded to him.

“Some of them fight for the title after a one [fight] win streak,” Nurmagomedov explained. “Some of them fight for the title in his debut fight.

“It does not make sense to tell this that I fought for the title because of my cousin’s name, because of Khabib’s name, or the UFC pushed me. Aljamain Sterling fought for the after a five [fight] win streak. Why can’t I fight for the title after six [wins]?”

For all the bad blood that’s simmered to the surface ahead of the fight, Nurmagomedov is happy to finally put it all behind him and just settle things with Dvalishvili in the octagon.

“I don’t care what he says, what he wants,” Nurmagomedov said. “Cage is going to close and we’re going to show who is the best fighter.”

Think you can figure out which UFC fighter we’re talking about? You’ll get five clues to figure him out.

We’re back for another day of the SB Nation UFC in-5 daily trivia game, and we’re switching to a system of a new article each day for the game.

We tried using a single article for the game, updated with the latest game each day, but it was creating a bit of an unwieldy experience in the comments. So, we’ll have the current day’s game plus the previous three days in each new article. That way, you can catch up if you miss a day.

Game instructions are at the bottom if you’re new to the game!

What we need from you

1. Play the game
2. Share your result in the comments and on social media
3. Provide feedback (Google Form or in comments below)

Today’s UFC in-5 game

Wednesday’s UFC in-5 game

Tuesday’s UFC in-5 game

Monday’s UFC in-5 game

The goal of the game is to guess the correct random UFC fighter player with the help of up to five clues. We’ll mix in BOTH ACTIVE AND RETIRED FIGHTERS. It won’t be easy to figure it out in one or two guesses, but some of you might be able to nail it. It will be a mix of well-known players and some “that guys” that we haven’t thought of in some time. The game will appear in slot #3 of the MMA Fighting layout each morning, with occasional movement later in the day.

After you correctly guess the player, you can click “Share Results” to share how you did down in the comments and on social media.

The first Pay-Per-View event of 2025 is here!

This Saturday in Inglewood, Calif., UFC 311 goes down, headlined by a pair of title fights in the best divisions in MMA. In the co-main event, Merab Dvalishvili puts his bantamweight belt on the line against the undefeated Umar Nurmagomedov. Then in the main event, pound-for-pound No. 1 Islam Makhachev defends his lightweight title in a rematch with Arman Tsarukyan. All that caps off an electric night of fights and No Bets Barred is here to break everything down.

This week, host Jed Meshew is joined by Action Network’s Billy Ward to dive into all things UFC 311. Topics discussed include Tsarukyan’s chances at pulling off the upset, how Dvalishvili can retain his 135 title, differing opinions on the light heavyweight bout between Jiri Prochazka and Jamahal Hill, the latest update on The Climb, and more.

Tune in for episode 114 of No Bets Barred.

New episodes of the No Bets Barred podcast drop every Wednesday and are available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever else you find your favorite podcasts. The latest episode can be heard below.

Merab Dvalishvili had a couple of reasons that he wanted to delay his first title defense until March but a lingering injury topped that list.

After defeating Sean O’Malley to become UFC champion this past September, the Georgian born bantamweight immediately turned his focus to 2025 with all signs pointing towards a showdown with Umar Nurmagomedov. Unfortunately Nurmagomedov wanted to fight sooner than later as he prepares to observe the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which goes from Feb. 28 through Mar. 29 where he’s required to fast from dawn to sunset everyday.

In the end, Dvalishvili eventually agreed to face Nurmagomedov at UFC 311 on Saturday but he knows it’s not happening under ideal circumstances.

“I wanted to enjoy it and I was in Vegas because [Aljamain Sterling] was fighting Movsar Evloev and training and I was always dealing with some injuries,” Dvalishvili revealed during UFC 311 media day on Wednesday.

“But once I hear the UFC needs me, I stepped up and Dana [White] said yes. I go to the office and I said OK, I will step up. I’m a company man. Let’s do it.”

Dvalishvili didn’t want to disclose the nature of the injury that was plaguing him but he promised to offer details after his fight on Saturday.

While he promises that the injury won’t affect his performance, Dvalishvili admits he did struggle at times through his training camp to get ready for Nurmagomedov.

“Not [the] fight. It was affecting my training,” Dvalishvili said. “I will post it after the fight but training was difficult because of this injury. But I’m good, I’m ready now. It’s all good.”

When it comes to the fight, Dvalishvili is anxious to finally put Nurmagomedov behind him after a contentious buildup has led to an unexpectedly intense rivalry.

Time and time again, Dvalishvili has stated that he didn’t believe Nurmagomedov deserved the title shot with only a single win over a fighter ranked in the top 10 in the world, not to mention a resume in the UFC that only sits at 6-0 overall.

Meanwhile, Dvalishvili had to go on an unprecedented 10 fight win streak including victories over three former UFC champions before he was granted that same opportunity.

Add to that, Dvalishvili feels like Nurmagomedov has been disingenuous with the way he’s presented himself in the leadup to the fight, which is why he’s constantly touting how the 29-year-old Dagestani has disrespected him so much.

“Every time I see him, I give him my respect,” Dvalishvili said. “I was cool with him. I know him as a person. This is not social media. This is not a video game something where you’re talking trash. We are real people. To get disrespected by Umar, I was mad and when I met him in person I asked him ‘why you disrespect me on Twitter?’ [He said] ‘because I wanted to, what are you going to do about it?’ Then you guys seen 30 minutes later he said ‘I never disrespected you, I never disrespected your country.’

“That’s why I was so mad. That’s why I wanted to kill this guy because I’m a real guy. I’m not going to ignore this.”

As angry as Nurmagomedov has made him prior to the fight, Dvalishvili promises that he’s not holding onto some kind of bitter hatred for his opponent nor does he need that as motivation to win.

Dvalishvili won’t back down from his criticism aimed at Nurmagomedov but he’s not seething with animosity to help him stay ready for this matchup.

“I don’t need to hate nobody,” Dvalishvili said. “You guys know I was kissing Sean O’Malley. I had so much fun inside the octagon. I was smiling there. I need to hate nobody. I don’t hate nobody.

“But it was things that Umar disrespected me. He called me a fake champion. I’m not a fake champion. He brought up something disrespectful expression, he said it’s a Georgian expression, it’s not a Georgian expression. He mentioned my country and then he’s still continuing to disrespect me. This is not right.”

Arman Tsarukyan has already built a lot of anticipation for his main event rematch against Islam Makhachev at UFC 311, but he’s managed to ratchet up expectations even more after revealing plans to unleash a super-secret move in the octagon.

The 28-year-old lightweight contender first teased this mystery move in the days leading up to the fight but now he can’t avoid questions asking for details that he doesn’t want to give out. What Tsarukyan can promise is this is a move that no one has ever used in the UFC but don’t expect him to unwrap that present before he can give it to Makhachev on Saturday.

“That technique I’ve never seen in UFC,” Tsarukyan said during UFC 311 media day. “[I’ve never seen] jn highlights as well.

“Everybody’s asking ‘tell me your secret technique.’ Like how can I tell you? OK, high kick, I’m saying to everybody. I shouldn’t say [anything] about that secret technique. Everybody is asking the same questions. What is the secret technique? I don’t know, it don’t make sense to ask that question. It’s a high kick guys.”

Of course, Tsarukyan has no one to blame but himself for talking about this secret move, especially with so much attention being paid to his fight against Makhachev at UFC 311.

Because his only goal is winning, Tsarukyan can’t promise that he’ll actually get to employ this mystery technique but he promises if it happens, everyone will know that it’s something that’s never been witnessed previously.

“For sure, that technique you’re going to say ‘oh wow, what is that?’” Tsarukyan said. “Like an upkick the last fight. You’ve never seen when I’m throwing upkicks. It’s a rare kick as well. A couple of fighters did an upkick in the UFC as well.”

If Tsarukyan could offer one more guarantee regarding this much talked about maneuver, he vows that Makhachev won’t see it coming and it’s definitely going to catch him off guard.

“It’s going to work if I throw it,” Tsarukyan said.

For now, we’ll all just have to wait until Saturday to see if Tsarukyan gets to use this secret move and how it might help him potentially claim the UFC lightweight title.

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